“It’s been a hard decision,” Fawcett told Potter. “With my courtroom experience and the battles I’ve fought, I thought I’d be right for the job. But statewide races are always geographic, and we don’t need to split the ticket in the west.”

“As much as Dave has this track record, one of the difficulties he’s got is a very significant candidate also coming out of Allegheny County,” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald explained.

It would not be surprising to see Fawcett back Zappala, as each talked highly of each other.

“Stephen Zappala holds David Fawcett in the highest regard as a former public official, an attorney and a person of integrity. He truly appreciates David’s kind remarks and will work hard to demonstrate David’s confidence in his candidacy is well placed,” Zappala Campaign Manager Marty Marks said in response.

9 thoughts on “Fawcett Drops Out of AG Race”

I would agree that Kane, as the incumbant who has not been convicted, arguing she was set up by the “old boys club” and the only woman running on the coat tails of Hillary Clinton, very well could sneak in as Shapiro and Zappala are busy with their “I am man, hear me roar” East vs West sword fight. Kathleen is the incumbant who will fight til the death, Josh is the ambitious and aggressive worker and Steve will phone it in from the Pittsburgh’s DA office while perched upon the throne of his machine. No one’s got this locked up.

Zappala is far from a lock. He will be asked questions about the Leon Ford case that he cannot answer. In that case, Zappala heaped the Pittsburgh Police with their cover-up of their shooting of an unarmed teenager. The kid didn’t do anything wrong and ended up paralyzed. The officer lied – saying the kid dragged him thus forcing him to shoot the kid. The video showed he lied. The officer was not dragged at al. And Zappala charged the kid anyway. Leon Ford was laying in a hospital bed recovering from surgery when Zappala approved his charges. Ford was later acquitted. But not before Zappala tried to hide a report that was critical of the Police shooter.

Scranton Sucks- ] She has not been found guilty of ANYTHING in a court of law.

So, assuming she’s acquitted/innocent/vindicated… it’s her against 4 guys (two of whom will spend a lot of money attacking each other). Having the west to himself, and having relevant DA experience is going to be a huge help for Zappala over Shapiro. Shapiro has a lot of money and Wolf/Marcel trying to rig the game for him. There are mixed opinions on how much support Shapiro has out of Philly.

Kane’s biggest obstacle is fundraising, but prevailing in court would be a huge public relations win that would/should get a lot of press (considering the amount of press spent on the allegations against her). An acquittal or public vindication would be worth a minimum of 10% to 15% of the primary vote. Given a 5-way race, and the only female, and a 30% being the “win number”, she’s in a decent position.